In his last interview before his death, the “scientific father of ADHD” – Leon Eisenberg, said: “ADHD is a prime example of a fictitious disease.” According to Psychiatric News, Eisenberg received the “Ruane Prize for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Research. He has been a leader in child psychiatry for more than 40 years through his work in pharmacological trials, research, teaching, and social policy and for his theories of autism and social medicine.” So, why in the end would a man discredit his own body of work after so many years? Guilty conscience?

6.4 million children a year are diagnosed with ADHD. But why? Jerome Kagan, a psychologist at Harvard and leading expert in childhood development, says: “Let’s go back 50 years. We have a 7-year-old child who is bored in school and disrupts classes. Back then, he was called lazy. Today, he is said to suffer from ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). . . . Every child who’s not doing well in school is sent to see a pediatrician, and the pediatrician says: “It’s ADHD; here’s Ritalin.” In fact, 90 percent of these 5.4 million kids don’t have an abnormal dopamine metabolism. The problem is, if a drug is available to doctors, they’ll make the corresponding diagnosis.”

This is an interesting take on a condition that 1 in 10 American boys takes medication for daily. Dr. Lisa Cosgrove published a study entitled “Financial Ties between DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) Panel Members and the Pharmaceutical Industry.” The DSM is the set of guidelines that doctors use to diagnose mental conditions and how to treat them. Does it surprise anyone that the study found that “of the 170 DSM panel members 95 (56%) had one or more financial associations with companies in the pharmaceutical industry. One hundred percent of the members of the panels on ‘Mood Disorders’ and ‘Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders’ had financial ties to drug companies.”